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Also not a book to jump into without having read its predecessors, Magic’s Child finds Reason Cansino wondering how her life could have changed so much in the span of two weeks. Her mother’s still locked up, she no longer hates her grandmother, Esmeralda, though she still doesn’t trust her, she has two close friends, a bundle of crazy new magic, and to ice the cake, she’s pregnant.
Of course, she’s just days pregnant, but Esmeralda saw it with her magic. Her friends Jay-Tee and Tom are sure that her creepy ancestor did it to her, while giving her his magic, but Reason and Esmeralda known the truth: the father is Jay-Tee’s brother, Danny, who Reason spent the night with in New York. She figures she needs to tell him, and head through the door to do just that. Only she catches him about ready to head out to catch a plane, on his way to visit them in Australia. And she can’t do it. Which turns out to be good, at least as far as Danny’s concerned, since he tells her that the other night shouldn’t have happened, and while he really likes her, she’s too young.
Back in Australia, a surprise visit from a Social Worker leaves Reason feeling ill at ease, since she’s sure her friends did more harm than good in trying to help her out. She’s also not looking forward to the academic testing she knew nothing about but is scheduled for in mere days.
Things take further turns for the worse as Reason goes to rescue her mother only to find she’s been kidnapped by Jason Blake, aka Alexander, aka her evil grandfather. En route to find them, Jay-Tee nearly dies, throwing one more wrench in the works. And overriding it all is the fact that Reason is changing, and incredibly fast. In a span of days she’s ceased needing to eat, can no longer feel hot or cold, has lost her hair, and to top it all off, glows. Her main struggle becomes that of humanity. To stay in the heavy, dull world she’s known her whole life, or to disappear into the world of magic: all lights and space and nothingness.
Can she save her friends and family before it’s too late? Will she stay in the world with them, and her daughter, or complete the change and become what Raul Cansino had in mind for her. If it is what he had in mind when he chose her over the rest of her family, to be the one to receive his gift.
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Definitely not a book to be read without reading the prior four, Lady Friday picks up not long after Sir Thursday left off. Leaf awakes in unknown surroundings, and feeling pretty funny. Following the warning of a worker, she makes it back to bed just in time to feign sleep, as she and her roommates are herded away by a group of Denizens of the House.
Within the House, Arthur is awoken in equally strange surroundings, though he realizes quickly he must be in Sir Thursday’s room. He has just enough time to get dressed, and find himself disturbed by the new vindictive streak Part Four of the Will seems to have added to Dame Primus, when he’s whised away to somewhere entirely unknown, and find himself in a pile of snow.
Spying Fetchers on the horizon, he immediately chooses a direction to make off in, and considers himself lucky to come upon a building. Though reluctantly, its occupants open up, and Arthur finds himself amongst some of the most unhelpful Denizens he’s met yet.
Leaf, whose destination turned out to be Lady Friday’s retreat, somewhere in the Secondary Realms, has called to the Mariner for help, and is trying to plot a way to save herself and her Aunt Mango from whatever nastiness Lady Friday is bound to have in store for them. She does manage to get a call off to Dr. Scamandros, though it gets cut off by Superior Saturday’s minions, and concludes with her getting caught by Friday’s Noon. Still, it’s something.
Arthur, finding himself surprised by the sudden appearance of Suzy Blue and Fred in the company of a Newnith soldier, is also working up a plan. One involving getting to the Top Shelf to find Part Five of the will, which he hopes can lead him to the Fifth Key, in possession of which he can force Lady Friday’s abdication. Along the way, many unexpected allies are made.
And on we go, jumping between stories, until the gang find themselves all in the same place, hoping their scheming hasn’t been for naught.
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I have to say this is one of the best books I’ve read this year–and also one of the hardest. All I can say is, you’ll probably hit a point where you’re not sure you can read this story, but if you hang in with it, it will all be worth it.
Boy Toy tells the tale of Josh Mendel, South Brook High attendee, ball player, and news item. At least, if you asked him, he’d tell you he’s all people talk about. Him, and the past he’d rather forget. It all started on his 13th birthday, with an incident in a closet gone wrong–if you asked him. In actuality, it started long before that, when Josh was still 12, but being smack in the middle of it, he just didn’t notice. In fact, looking back, even after so long, he still has a hard time figuring out where it all went wrong.
In seventh grade, Josh was ahead of his time. Smart in a way most couldn’t understand, which left him with an equal non-understanding, since it all came so naturally to him, and mature for his age, Josh was in a league of his own. A fact which his History teacher, Mrs. Sherman, didn’t fail to notice. And by the way? She’s 24, and gorgeous.
After a mishap involving missing his bus during an emergency closing, Josh finds himself stranded at school. Mrs. Sherman, not yet gone herself, offers to call his mother for the school and sort it out, since she lives close by and can spare the time. But Mrs. Mendel is also stranded. The roads by here have been closed and will be for hours. And so it is Josh makes his first trip to Mrs. Sherman’s apartment, which turns out to be a kid’s dream: video games galore, thanks to her husband’s occupation as a game tester.
Not long after his afternoon in heaven, Mrs. Sherman seeks permission from Josh’s parents to use him in a grad school project. Her timing, as it turns out, is perfect. Mr. Mendel has been hounding his wife about going back to work, concerned that Josh is too young to spend time home alone. With Josh spending afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Mendel can now work without the guilt, and his father can allay his fears.
As time progresses, Josh goes from spending afternoons at school doing tests, to sitting on Mrs. Sherman’s couch doing tests. His visits get longer, and longer, which lets his mother work later without worry. Soon he’s eating most of his dinners with Mrs. Sherman and George, who enjoys coming home and watching Josh beat whatever game happens to be in the Xbox at the time. Eventually, all Josh is doing is playing games and hanging out. And Mrs. Sherman is morphing from teacher to friend. Some days it’s too much to try and remember not to call her Eve at school. But when Eve tries to cut off their afternoon’s together, after having kissed, Josh is distraught and begs her to let him stay.
He has fun at her place. He can play games, unlike at home. He gets treated like an adult. He doesn’t want to lose that. And so she relents. And things progress. Right up until the night in the closet with his best friend Rachel, where her kiss sets his mind to automatic pilot, leaving her scared and confused and Josh feeling a freak.
The relationship with Eve comes out, and Rachel’s parents immediately drop the charges. But for Josh, the damage is done. He no longer knows how to face Rachel, which breaks up the four musketeers and leaves him with only one friend: Zik. His parents and the police hound him endlessly, but he doesn’t want to betray Eve too. He promised he wouldn’t.
But in the end, they wear him down, and he fills legal pads with his story. Because he remembers it all. Only on the stand in court, even faced with his books, he doesn’t want to talk. Seeing his distress, Eve changes her plea to guilty and confesses all. Her confession ends up on the internet. And even though it states no names, Josh is sure everyone knows it was him, and is just as sure everyone’s read it. Which is why, if you asked Josh, everyone is talking about him.
This ordeal turns Josh’s High School career into an effort to blend into the shadows. Aside from classes and baseball, where his sole role is that of Designated Hitter, Josh steers clear. He also avoids Rachel at all costs. Until Eve is released and in his confusion he visits The Narc during Rachel’s shift and walks right into her.
Over the next few weeks, Josh regains his friend, albeit with some discomfort. He gets roped into Prom. He finally spills about just what happened, after losing a bet. And he starts to gain some true understanding, including the most important one of all. For five years, he’s been living a misconception. And only that realization can truly set him free.
Note: Boy Toy is scheduled for release in September.
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A year after character’s from one of Meggie’s favorite books, Inkheart, made chaos of their lives, Meggie and Mo are happy at home with Aunt Elinor, and Meggie’s Mother, Resa, finally returned from her captivity in the book. But Resa’s mind often turns to that other world which she knew for so long. And Meggie’s fascination knows no bounds. Dutifully she’s written down all the stories her mother has told her; Mo has bound them into books for her. But his concern is growing heavy. He wants her to give the Inkworld a rest. At least for awhile. And she’s about to store the books away, too. Until the boy her father read out of his story the previous year turns up at the door with stories of Dustfinger returning home to Inkheart, Basta planning his death, and the deaths of Meggie’s family, someone called Orpheus having the last copy of the book. Ultimately, he wants to be read into the story after Dustfinger, to warn him. He wasn’t supposed to be left behind.
Meggie agrees to try–but only if she goes with him. And so she rewrites Orpheus’ words, adds in a few to take her too, writes a letter to her family, and off they go.
But for all that Inkheart is one of her favorite stories, and the Inkworld is somewhere she’s always wanted to see, her arrival leaves her wishing immediately that she hadn’t gone through with it. Which means her only hope is to find Fenoglio, the book’s author, to see if he can write her back home.
Only the longer Meggie finds herself in this strange yet familiar world, the more it begins to feel like her own. And though she misses her family and her old life, and there are parts of the Inkworld she could do without, she also doesn’t want to leave it. That’s the way with words in this story–all-powerful, life-changing, game-playing. Can they together save this world they love so much, or will it be their doom in the end?
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Dead mother. Missing brother. Distant Dad. Difficult school. That about sums up life as Emil Simon knows it. So you can understand how being in possession of a supposed Master Key to his school would tempt him. With nothing else really going for him, how could he not want to know? And with his father heading out of town for a week on a business, what better time than to find out?
The first time he unlocks the main door on campus, Emil feels a little dread. But he gets over it quickly. He finds that campus at night feels more like home than home does. And with his little setup in the attic, he takes to spending more time there than at home.
He reads in the library, spends a few nights in the archives, peruses some faculty offices. But his best find is really an accident. Noticing lights, he heads to the Art Building, and stumbles upon his art teacher’s daughter. Which leads to a wealth of lies, as he doesn’t know what to say or how to explain the truth of his situation. That aside, things seem to be going quite well, and Emil can’t believe his luck.
Which runs out when his best friend’s mother realizes he’s been home alone, calls one night, heads over to see why he didn’t answer, realizes he’s not there, and calls his father. Not good.
But when Emil’s father arrives home and they sit down to talk, Emil finds out he’s not the only one who’s been lying. Apparently he’s been at the receiving end of some whoppers himself. And he doesn’t like the feeling. Which leads him to the realization that he has to come clean with Jade. Jade, as it happens, has put a lot of his story together already. And while not pleased with the lies, she does agree to a road trip. One final excursion into the world of breaking all the rules.
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Our story picks up not that long after Lulu’s first adventures into girl detectivism, which I haven’t read, at the beginning of summer, which Lulu is really hoping will be just plain fun. It doesn’t take very long for her wishes to prove futile.
While out with best pal Daisy, they stumble upon some surprising, and not quite welcome, news in their favorite gossip column. Lulu’s mother is in town shooting a movie. Their relationship, as you may have guessed, is strained at best. Lulu’s parents got divorced when she was young, as her dad, it so happened, was gay. Lulu now lives with he and his partner, Theo. Her mother left Halo City and was essentially never heard from again. So naturally heads right off for the shoot to find out why Isabelle hadn’t told her she was in town. Which meant she was standing up her best friend turned boyfriend, Charlie.
After gaining access to the set, then finding her way to her mother’s trailer with the help of none other than the famous Lisa Lincoln, Lulu concludes that Isabelle seems a little off. But she still invites her for pastries later that night, half expecting her not show. If only that made it easier when she really didn’t.
The expected turns mystery rather quickly, however, when Isabelle’s agent tells her Isabelle is on vacation and Lisa Lincoln shows up at her apartment to tell her her mother is, in fact, missing. Lulu is sure there’s something amiss, after checking out Isabelle’s now vacant room, and seeing the two imposter maids who arrive while she and Lisa are inside, but her mind takes a different turn from most. Lulu is sure her mother is the bad guy.
The police aren’t interested, seeing as there’s that whole “vacation” deal. But after Isabelle shows her face on national television during the Halo Awards, where she and group of blondes in masks accost Lisa Lincoln as she’s about to give an acceptance speech, they get interested. I should also note, Lisa Lincoln was on national tv with Lulu’s boyfriend, and she doesn’t know how to take that one at all.
Lulu’s next order of business after this ordeal is to talk to Lisa. She thinks she might know something about Isabelle that the rest of them don’t and can’t figure out. Lisa’s bodyguard has different ideas, which leads to Lulu taking a tumble and Daisy pulling out the Icelandic Kickboxing. And Charlie opening the door to see what’s going on. For Lulu, this is going exactly how she wouldn’t want it. But she does get some information.
She also gets a frantic call from her mother, as they’re leaving, about a kidnapping. Realizing the same horn she heard over the phone is now coming closer, she hops onto her borrowed Vespa, Daisy in town, and takes off after the SUV that comes speeding around the corner. Sadly, she doesn’t actually know how to drive a Vespa, and their pursuit ends with a crash in the park.
And the fun doesn’t end there. Lulu has a few more fiery hoops to jump through before all is said and done.
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The residents of Clarence, Minnesota lead your normal sort of American life. Work, play, school, shop. The only thing amiss in Clarence, really, is the smell. The Psychopharmaceutical factory does nothing for the ambience. When the Emergency Alert siren sounds and residents are informed there’s been a fire at said factory, and that a chemical may have been released into the air, it does nothing for the nerves either.
After keeping everyone indoors and sending around some yellow-suited fellows, the Factory declares everything OK, though they do tell people it would be best to stay indoors for a couple of days. In the back of their minds, everyone knows something must be happening. You don’t send out people in yellow suits for nothing. But no one knows just what did/could happen. And so Clarence goes on with its life. Until it can’t.
Suddenly, kids are crying, adults are falling to pieces. Everywhere, people are remembering. Even the scientists and psychology students who feel they should know better feel themselves falling victim to this unknown. Deletrium. Used with drugs to help them act. On its own, no one really knows what its capable of.
We follow along with certain townspeople, as they remember their lives, and struggle not to become completely overwhelmed.
One of the more fascinating books I’ve read in awhile. Ursu is definitely one to watch.
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